Me & the missus will be coming to your fair city for a wedding 9/29-10/2 and A) would love to see folks and B) are always looking for ideas of places to go, things to do, and food to eat!

We don't have a lot of time, and the wedding will eat up much of it. But.. here's our itinerary so far. (We were there about two years ago and saw a fair bit, but there's clearly loads more)

Thursday: Happy Hour at the Hala Kahiki (would love to see some TC ohana there.) Maybe dinner at Superdawg!

Friday: Probably The Art Institute and a follow up visit to the Robie House to see how renovations are going. Happy Hour at Trader Vic's. Rrrrromantic dinner for two at Gene & Georgetti (thanks to my "steak source" thejab for this tip). Drinks somewhere afterward.

I'll let tikibars handle the tiki-tips, 'cause he'll do a better job than I can obviously, but if you happen to find yourself with a dinner-shaped hole in your schedule, and you're downtownishly positioned, there's an Armenian restaurant at 157 E Ohio St called Sayat Nova that I'm dying to go back to soon. Their Raw Kibbee is nearly enough to have me hopping on a plane. And also -- when tikibars says you should spend some time at Delilah's, listen to him.

I'd be happy to schlep you and Rebecca out to Hala Kahiki on Thursday.

The plan I usually recommend is dinner at Chef Shangri-La and then drinks at HK. The Chef is a much better dinner destination than bruch, IMHO. Their drinks are second only to Trader Vic's and are cheaper!

You guys have a chauffered tour of the Chicago Tiki suburbs in the Mobile Exploraton Lab on Thursday, if you need it.

Your Friday plan sounds good, and there is also a big art festival in the Pilsen neighborhood that night. I may catch up with you at Trader Vic's and then head to Pilsen. You're welcome to come to Pilsen with me, of course.
20 to 30 galleries all walking distance from each other will have their doors open until 10 PM-ish showing new art.

How about driving a little south to the Mai-Kai Oct 6-9!?!?!? _________________I'm the most thirstiesterest of all!
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I know! With gas prices up I decided I couldn't afford to do the southern tiki road trip and Hukilau and Cuba, so I'm not doing Cuba this year. It would have cost me $500 RT (non-refundable) just to fly to Cuba from Ft. Lauderdale, and with it still during hurricane season I decided to go to Cuba next year (perhaps in the Spring) probably though Cancun.

JT, what airline are you on to Florida and when do you fly back? Southwest changed my flight home on Monday Oct. 10th from Florida-New Orleans-Oakland to Florida-Chicago-Oakland. Too bad I only have time to change planes in Chicago (25 minutes). I paid only $100 for the one-way flight.

Thanks for the tips and thanks for the kind offer JT- we'll take you up on it!

I just wanted to go to Hala early for happy hour as I was worried about the crowds on a Thurs night. If we go to the Chef for dinner, then to Hala, will it be too crowded? Otherwise, it sounds good to me.

Will probably check out Delilah's on Friday for the nightcap.

We're staying in the lap o luxury thanks to a great wedding discount rate- we'll be at The InterContinental on 505 N. Michigan. I can't wait.

Now that the cat's out of the bag on martiki's new employer, does this trip have anything to do with said employer? And maybe martiki can clear up the recent rumors about Trader Vic's Chicago possible closing. I'll understand if you can't speak or if you're in the dark on this.

I can tell you this much: AJ, the super cool manager who hatched the idea for Tabu Tiki Nights, has resigned. As he is stil at TVs employee, you'll be seeing him in San Francisco soon (hey, he might end up as Martiki's boss!), and then in the upcoming Seattle TVs (at least, that's the plan he told me).

The new manager of TVs in Chicago was brought in by the hotel, not TVs, and all reports indicate that he's as unfriendly to Tikiphiles as the early-mid 1990s staff were.

Not, at all, zazz, I'm afraid.

Perhaps Martiki, as our resident mole into the inner workings of TVs, can get us the insider scoop after this weekend.